Monolithic photonic integrated circuit with a GaN-based bent waveguide

摘要

Integration of a transmitter, waveguide and receiver into a single chip can generate a multicomponent system with multiple functionalities. Here, we fabricate and characterize a GaN-based photonic integrated circuit (PIC) on a GaN-on-silicon platform. With removal of the silicon and back wafer thinning of the epitaxial film, ultrathin membrane-type devices and highly confined suspended GaN waveguides were formed. Two suspended-membrane InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well diodes (MQW-diodes) served as an MQW light-emitting diode (MQW-LED) to emit light and an MQW photodiode (MQW-PD) to sense light. The optical interconnects between the MQW-LED and MQW-PD were achieved using the GaN bent waveguide. The GaN-based PIC consisting of an MQW-LED, waveguides and an MQW-PD forms an in-plane light communication system with a data transmission rate of 70 Mbps.